Hamilton: Not an impossible mountain to climb

George Russell was sixth fastest, in the sister Mercedes, a tad faster than his teammate. Perhaps the 'good news' for the Black Arrows is that the gap to Max Verstappen's pole-winning time was only six-tenths.

Despite being out-qualified by Alonso today, who is doing wonders with the Merc-PU customers Aston Martin, for Hamilton, that's a positive sign as the team elected to sacrifice the W14's potential qualifying pace for a more race-effective setup.

Reflecting on an entertaining first F1 qualifying of 2023, Hamilton said: "We went in with a really open mind. I woke up this morning thinking we were going to be a lot further behind, and so the fact we're even getting into Q3 was great.

"We made a step forward today and the car was feeling much more alive this morning, and all of a sudden we were in a different place to where we were the day before. "But then we got to qualifying and for me the car just didn't feel alive, it felt kind of average.

"The direction I've gone with my set-up, I'm hoping it will work better tomorrow because I've tried to set it up for tomorrow, but it made it a little bit difficult for Qualifying."

"It's not an impossible mountain to climb, so that's a positive, and I know everyone back at the factory has been working so hard. We can definitely close the gap, we've just got really focus and push like never before," added Hamilton, on the opening weekend of his 17th season in the top flight.

Mercedes never got a handle on their car last year, admitting to not knowing where and when the W13 would be quick or not, mostly it was not but on an occasion or two - Sao Paulo with Russell - there was hope.

This year one would expect that by persisting with their troublesome design concept, they know what makes it work and what doesn't.

The element of surprise appears to remain, as Russell explained after qualifying in Bahrain: "Friday was a bit of a shock for us because we didn't really know why we lost so much performance or were off the pace.

"We made some changes and they exceeded our expectations, so that's a positive, but after winter testing this is probably where we expected to be.

"Our goal over the winter was to make sure we've got a car we can build upon and that there aren't any significant problems. We spent probably three-quarters of last year problem solving...and now I feel we've got a car which is nice to drive.

"It generally feels like a good car, and now we can focus on adding downforce and performance which is what the team have done for so long. There are definitely signs to be positive, but we've got a lot to improve.

"There's not going to be any substantial changes [for the race]. I think we've got a fight on our hands for P3; Ferrari over the last four years have always been really strong in qualifying and struggled a bit more in the race, so I'm relatively pleased to be not so far behind them.

"Fernando is probably more of a dark horse than Ferrari, he had some really good race pace in testing, so I think it's going to be a good fight for P3. It's just a shame the Red Bulls are a bit too far ahead for now," lamented Russell ahead of his 83rd Grand Prix start on Sunday.